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You loved the original Iraq War, and were split on the sequel, but now stand by for Iraq War III. Obama has become the fourth US President to bomb Iraq. First was George the First, then Clinton the First (There may be a Second). Then we had the major escalation by George the W, whose ADHD caused him to take his eye off of Afghanistan and find an imaginary nexus between 9-11 and Saddam Hussein. Obama, of course, ran against this “Dumb war.” His words.

Now he’s eating his words and doing that political thing of completely changing his policy while denying changing his policy. You see, you can’t admit to changing a policy because it implies that your policy was imperfect—maybe even wrong. And that would be politically wrong.

The “Dumb war” is now in reruns, as Obama ordered 134 troops, er sorry, “advisors” into Iraq to coach the Iraqi soldiers we have been training and arming for more than a decade. The troops were given incompetent leaders by Prime Minister Maliki, because he needed Shiite generals and not Sunnis. Somehow he didn’t foresee that Shiite led Sunnis wouldn’t fight against the Sunnis of ISIS, but would throw down their American-supplied arms and flee.

Then Obama sent another couple of hundred “folks”, (as he likes to say) to protect the American Counsel property and forty staff members in Erbil. We wouldn’t want another Benghazi, would we? Although maybe evacuating 40 staffers might be safer and smarter than sending in force protection.

All the while Obama promised there wouldn’t be any “boots on the ground.” I guess the now 350 protectors and advisors aren’t wearing any boots. They could be shod with cross-trainers or maybe Bass Weejuns, but assuredly not boots, no never boots. That bootless commitment lasted until Tuesday August 12th when it became “inoperative,” and he sent Special Forces to rescue the Christians and Kurdish Yazidis. He also promised that this wasn’t a short operation but would take an extended period of time. Finally a credible piece of information!

Obama then authorized airstrikes from carrier-based fighters and drones to protect those folks isolated in the Sinjar mountains. Ok. But yesterday he also authorized basing some of our aircraft on the ground in northern Iraq in a “joint Iraqi-American air base.”

We are no longer drifting down a slippery slope; we are rapidly barreling down the Cresta run on our fragile skeletons. We’ve already passed Battledore and heading for Shuttlecock before inevitably crashing between Scylla and Charybdis. All this without any real debate or truthful information.

But we’re told that we have to stop ISIS because they’re evil and if we don’t stop them there, they’ll come here. I hear an echo of rationales past. Well, they are evil, and the foreigners who are drawn to Jihad will pose a threat—as Jihadis who were blooded in Afghanistan against the Russians went to Bosnia and Jihadis blooded in Bosnia went to Iraq and Jihadis…You get the drift.

ISIS itself has been on a winning streak in Iraq because Sunni soldiers weren’t willing to die for a Shiite regime that marginalized them. Their brutality is extraordinary, even by the standards of the rough neighborhood. But such Reigns of Terror seldom succeed. Their radicalism makes it impossible to build coalitions and their harshness makes them devour their own. Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi is a fraud—not a cleric, nor a scholar, neither a philosopher, nor a general, not even a political leader. He will not last.

We have a legitimate duty to save people, any people, from religious and ethnic slaughter. We have neither the duty nor the ability to nation build or impose freedom at the point of a bayonet. Humanitarian missions are a must, but not only in lands with oil or trading routes. There’s a duty to come between combatants bent on ethnic slaughter—in the Mid East, in Africa, all over.

But we need to exorcise the delusion that we can pick their leaders. Our killing of Mossadegh begat the Ayatollahs, killing Diem didn’t save Vietnam, promoting the hanging of Saddam may have felt good (though not to him) but got us Maliki. And killing Gadaffi created not peace but chaos. Telling Assad that he had to go hasn’t worked much magic for us, and now (maybe) getting rid of Maliki and replacing him with Abadi may not change much. He’ll still be an agent of Iran.